Children are known to play with their foods and drinks. While drinking beverages, children often, for various reasons, drink rapidly so as to cause aspiration of liquid, choking, gagging, or “brain freeze”. In particular, children diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) are likely to consume their drinks too quickly. AD/HD children are known to fidget with their hands or feet, to engage in physically dangerous activities without considering the possible consequences, to have difficulty playing quietly, and to have difficulty awaiting turns in games, conversations, and other activities. Other children may drink too fast because they are racing with other children or they are too impatient or they are trying to attract attention from peers or adults.
Difficulty in swallowing, leading to a decreased ability to move food and liquid from the mouth to the stomach, is referred to as dysphagia. A patient suffering from dysphagia may encounter medical complications, such as aspiration. Aspiration, wherein all or part of the bolus penetrates the airway below the level of the vocal folds, is commonly encountered by patients whose dysphagia results from cognitive impairment. Impairments in attention, judgement and memory may preclude such individuals from using safe swallowing techniques. Thus, while the motor skills for swallowing thin liquids may be present, the patient may not remember to take small sips or to appropriately monitor his rate of intake, resulting in aspiration.
Although conventional straws may be used to deliver liquids to children and dysphagic persons, they present problems since the rate or amount of liquid swallowed cannot be monitored or controlled. It has been determined that the risk of choking by dysphagic patients may be reduced by drinking with a chin-down head position. Accordingly, therapeutic drinking cups designed to promote such a chin-down head position have been developed and used. One such cup (a “Nosey Cup”) includes a cut-out for the patient's nose so that the cup can be tipped to a drinking position with the chin down. A so-called “Dysphagia Cup” has also been developed, which is internally and externally contoured to promote drinking with a chin down head position. While these devices may prevent choking in dysphagic patients, they do not in any way control the rate or the amount of intake of the liquid.
One known therapeutic drinking straw machine consists of a straw with a pumping mechanism disposed between the two ends of the straw to convey liquid from the source to the mouth of the user. The pumping mechanism includes a manual actuator and a central reservoir such that the actuation of the actuator empties the reservoir and return of the actuator to a rest position re-fills the reservoir. This device allows a specific amount of liquid to be stored in the reservoir and then delivered to the user in order to assist motorically-impaired and cognitively-impaired individuals with swallowing difficulties.
However, the drinking straw machine is difficult and costly to manufacture since it requires a pump, reservoir, and valves. Furthermore, its bulkiness and overall design make the drinking straw machine unappealing, especially to children.
A novelty drinking straw is also known that has a decorative object positioned in the straw and between a pair of stops, which form a compartment. The object and the stops are dimensioned to prevent the movement of the object past the stops while allowing fluid to pass by. This device is designed only as a novelty to increase the attractiveness of the straw and to potentially use the decorative object for advertisement purposes. The object placed within the compartment is not used to block passage of liquid and may even dissolve or float. Novelty drinking straws are also known that are designed to be visually appealing to promote consumer purchases and child use.
Thus, while various straws have been developed to assist cognitive-impaired dysphagic patients or individuals with the tendency to drink rapidly, they are not entirely satisfactory.